crashing weddings like its my job

I have been having a very busy past week dealing with weddings, parties, and days off of school.  In fact I feel like Vince Vaguns character in The Wedding Crasher.  If you haven’t seen that movie stop reading this and go out and get it.   Friday I had the opportunity to go to a church in Alerti for St. Georges day.  He is the patron saint of the Georgian orthodox church, so we had the day off in order to visit church in his honor.  Bright and early some high schoolers and I made the 6km walk to the church.  Even though it was early the church was packed.  You couldn’t move inside it and had to elbow your way through the crowds.  That was perfectly fine for all the Georgians, because we all know that they do not believe in lines.  The church itself was remarkably plain for an orthodox.  It had standard white walls and only one image of Christ near the alter.  I was told that the church dates back to the 11^th century, and it looks like it could still stand another 900 years.  After that we made the trek back home for a small supra and to continue setting up for my host brother, Mancho’s, wedding.

The church in Alerti.

So Saturday rolls around, and my family is continuing to set up for Mancho’s wedding.  The tent is finally pitched and it looks like it could hold a couple hundred people (the final tally of place settings was 280).  As customary for any time that people are over to help there is a meal placed out for them.  It was then that I found out that my family would not be going to another coteachers wedding.  I was on my own to walk there and make friends with Georgians.  Luckily, I handled it like a champ and talked the best I could to my fellow teachers and students.  My principal urged me to drink from the horn in honor of Lasha and his new wife.  After successful completion of the task at hand they are were surprised, then told me that it held a liter of wine.  To my disbelief they filled it with a liter bottle of water to prove their point.  I was shocked, but oh well every other man in the room had drank from it (so at least I was on their level).  We celebrated until 5 in the morning and it was quite a good time.

Drinking from the horn, next to my principal.

The wedding celebration continued on Monday with events and more people over to help out.  The cooking started on Monday for Manchos.  In total there were 30 chickens, 5 turkeys, 11 pigs, and 4 cows killed for the festivities.  An army of women descended on the house to take care of everything.  They worked like champs and were able to handle all the cooking for the wedding.  I helped the men with the decorations, and in my own personal opinion we made that tent look like professionals did it.  Of course they worked like Georgians, so one person would do something while 10 others stand around and discuss the task being preformed.

Finally Tuesday, the wedding day, rolled around.  There was lots of people doing last minute party planning.  The women came out in droves again to finish all the cooking that was started the day before.  It was quite a production once again.  The wedding itself was much like all the other Georgian weddings I have seen.  Lots of food, drink, and dancing were on order.  It was once again a great time and my whole host family was having a lot of fun.  It was a clear relief to my host dad that his second son had finally gotten married.  Wednesday we had a much needed day of rest, and it was time to clean up the mess from the party.  It looked like a bomb blew up in the backyard and now it was time to fix the mess.  Everyone worked slowly and with the neighbors help we were able to get it back to a somewhat normal state.  Now its been back to school and getting used to the daily grind again.  I only have 6 more days of classes, and its imminent end is starting to be noticeable.  I really like my friends, family, teachers, and students here and will miss them when I go home.  

Mancho, Sopo, best man, and the bridesmaid.